City Council - Regular Meeting

Is she on?

She said she was going to join remotely.

She is not on.

Oh, so she should.

All right, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our regular meeting of the Elko City Council for September, September already, September 8th, 2026. We have all members of the board present with the exception of Councilwoman Lostra, who I'm told will be joining remotely. So Annette, if you'll just let me know when she signs on. And at this time, Lynn Hoffman, would you please lead us in the pledge?

the United States of America.

All right, this is the time for comments from the public not pertaining to items that are on this evening's agenda. If you have any, please come up to the podium and then be sure and sign in as you finish. In the center back there, there's a sign-in sheet.

That's okay. hi my name is april howard i was invited here to talk to you tonight by councilman chip stone he asked that i just share a little bit about just serve in the 9 11 national day of service i am the area elko area director for just serve just serve if you don't know it's just serve.org it's an online platform that connects volunteers with non-profit organizations and community groups seeking help. It's a website and an app. Volunteer opportunities are available year-round for individuals, families, businesses, and organizations. Just serve as also a coalition partner with the 9-11 Day. And 911day.org is a 501 nonprofit that was founded They founded the federally recognized September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance. Its mission is to transform the anniversary of 9-11 into a day of doing good. In collaboration with JustServe, AmeriCorps and others, 9-11 Day organizes volunteer events and promotes local service nationwide. And you can learn more about that at 911day.org. We have tried this year to really promote 9-11 Day as part of the Elko community and on our website we have several volunteer opportunities, including with the city of Elko. I've worked with Mr. Johnson to come up with some projects to benefit the city. And in addition, we have some with Ruby Mountain Resource Center, the Northern Nevada Food Bank, the new one that's going in down by Southside, communities and schools, Spring Creek Association, and then I've noticed online that fish is also getting on the bandwagon and doing their own food drive for this event. So anyway, thank you for your time.

Well, great. Yeah, thank you for serving in that role. I appreciate it.

I want to bring up a couple things. Thank you, Amber. Amber. You know what I mean. Thank you for being here. I appreciate it. She gave me a whole packet that I'll go ahead and turn into you that we can become a city and officially be recognized as a just-served city. And this gives us an order, a way to do a proclamation. And then we send it to them and then approved and then we can actually become a just serve city with that recognition. National League of Cities president is in there as well. So it's a very, it's an international organization that's done all over the world. So I'd like, if we could put that together and hopefully the next meeting when we can actually take action and do some things on it to see if we can make that happen and discuss it. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

April. See, I'll get it right.

And Robert Howard, I did speak to the one of the administrators at the VA, the one that's in charge of all the cemeteries in the West, in the Pacific Northwest, I guess I should say about the dust concerns. And if if that continues to be a problem out there, if you could please let staff know, that would be great. We can't do anything if we don't know that there's a problem.

For the record, Scott Gavorski, I rise on behalf of the Elko County Republican Party, and I'm happy to say also on behalf of our friends at the Elko County Democrats and the Independent American Party of Nevada, we've got the Constitution event coming up here on Wednesday, September 16th at 6 p.m. over in the Elko High School Performing Arts Building. this being, unfortunately, the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks. We're going to do We the People 25 years after 9-11 and have a panel discussion about some of the issues that the 9-11 attacks raised from a constitutional perspective, some of the strains that the Constitution was put under where it worked, where it didn't. So we're inviting everybody from the public to come on out, and we're also soliciting questions right now For our panelists, these can be sent directly to our moderator, Delmo Andriozzi, at delmo.andriozzi at ElkoCountyNV.gov. So hope to see everybody on September 16th, as well as the more direct 9-11 commemorations that will be going on here in Elko over this week. Thank you.

Great. Thanks, Scott. All right. Anyone else? Looks like we have another.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Councilman, Annette Kerr, Elko Convention and Visitors Authority Executive Director. Just a quick reminder, this weekend is the Rides and Rods Car Show. The street will be closed off right here. Part of Moran Way will be as well. On 9-11 that evening will be a concert in the Lauren Moran Theater, as well as a concert after party will be in the Circle Driveway area there. So starting on, I believe it's Thursday, people start to set up. And then, actually, they'll start coming in Wednesday. We're anticipating about a 6,000 increase or influx of people here. So that's going on this weekend. The following weekend is the air show and the balloon festival. And basically, it's a wine walk, but bubbles and balloons. So every weekend this week in September, we have something going on. So just giving you a heads up and just to make sure you know that this drive is going to be packed with cars on 9-11. All right.

Thank you for that, Annette. And thank you for mentioning the air show as well.

My name is Brian Riley. I represent the American Legion. And on 9-11, we'll be doing a ceremony out front with Honor Guard. And we have invited all first responders because they are the heroes of 9-11. And we will be having speeches. So if anybody wants to come and give a quick speech, you're perfectly welcome to come. And I'd like to see as many people who could fit in here besides all those cars.

so have a great weekend thank you for that brian hey as part of that just uh wanted to recognize uh howard um he's he is bringing uh flags to put that we had talked about with the scouts i think the scouts put them up or they'll be putting the 25 flags out there in memorial there and uh At 10 o'clock when that starts, there will be a national anthem done at the car show, and then all of the cars will fire up. We'd really like to get, were you bringing a fire truck too? Fire the sirens up and everything at that same time. It'd be kind of cool to do if we can. It's just for a brief 30 seconds, and then we shut, if possible, during that to recognize everything as part of that event, and then it'll go off into there. Should be good. Thank you. Thanks for the scouts. Appreciate it.

All right, last call for a public comment.

Sure is nice that it's less than 85 degrees in here this afternoon. Nice to have some cooler weather that's more agreeable with our ancient HVAC system. For the record, Councilwoman Marissa Lastra has joined us online. And with that, we'll move on to our consent agenda. We have three items on there. Does anyone from the public have any questions or concerns about any of these? All right. Seeing none, I'm ready for a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I'll move to accept the consent agenda as written.

Second.

Second. All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye.

And I also vote for approval. Got one more to go.

Mr. Mayor, this is Marissa Lastra. I received an email, and I believe the rest of the council did as well, about the railroad and the environmental impact. And they had requested that this be postponed or tabled to our next city council meeting to have public comment on the environmental impact of expanding that railroad. Did you guys receive that or have any comments?

I haven't received anything.

I glanced at it just before the meeting, but I did not read that. It seems like environmentalists have issues with absolutely everything, so I don't feel compelled to want to grant that. Does anyone else on the board want to open up that can of worms? I'm good with it, no. I'm good. Okay. Marissa, did you vote?

I did not vote, so I will go ahead and vote nay on that.

Okay. All right, duly noted. All right, moving on to presentations. Item 6A, reading of a proclamation by the mayor in recognition of the month of September as National Suicide Prevention Month and matters related thereto. Informational only, non-action item, and I have a proclamation here, and Wendy Greener and Lori Lesbo are here to collect that.

So come on up.

Hi, how are you? Good to see you. Yeah, unfortunately, suicide continues to be a big problem here in the community. And we saw a real spike during the COVID time and it settled down. since then but not enough I mean even one is too many I appreciate what you're doing on that front and I hope that you know your volunteers stay energized and and engaged and maybe you can tell us a little bit about what you're doing Wendy or

I don't like talking in front of people. But this coming Saturday, we're going to have our Hope, Health, and Healing Walk to support suicide awareness. It's going to be up at the college. It's a 5K walk or run. And there's some information here, so we'll leave it. This information and some key chains here if you guys are interested. But it truly does take a community. And we just thank you so much for all of your support as the city of Elko and out in Spring Creek. Just supporting the families and the friends and relatives of the ones that have lost their lives to suicide.

No comments? All right.

All right, I've gone on that walk, and dogs are welcome still, right? Absolutely. Good. All right. And that's this weekend? It is. All right. All right, this is a proclamation whereas September is Suicide Prevention Month, a time to raise awareness of suicide prevention, treatment and recovery and to remind every Nevadan of the role they can play in supporting those at risk and whereas the Zero Suicide Program and the Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention continue their vital work to reduce stigma, promote mental health and wellness, and conduct individuals and families to life-saving support, and whereas, 988, the National Suicide Prevention and Crisis Lifeline, is available by call, text, or chat 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and whereas, September 10th is World Suicide Prevention Day, a moment for our community to come together in awareness and support. Now, therefore, I, Reese Keener, Mayor of the City of Elko, do hereby proclaim September 2026 as Suicide Prevention Month and encourage all residents to join in promoting hope, reducing stigma, and working together to prevent suicide.

Thank you for your volunteerism. All right. Presentations. Item B.

Presentation by Lombard Conrad Architects, LCA, discussion and possible direction on the project delivery method for the new Elko City Hall and matters related thereto for possible action. The city council approved the professional services agreement with LCA to include packages one through four, which includes standard building, site plaza, furniture, and art design services on August 11th, 2026. LCA will present two project delivery methods to consider for the new city hall, low bid and construction manager at risk, CMAR. Based on the educational presentation by LCA, staff is requesting direction on which construction delivery method to pursue for the Elko City Hall, Jan?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, City Council. Ben Bernier with Lombard Conrad is here to give us some education and information on the two delivery methods that we're considering for City Hall.

Mr. Mayor, Council Members, thanks for having me back. And I will add, Matt Gesserick, a partner at Lombard Conrad, is online. We're gonna split the presentation out for ourselves. As noted, as we kick off design of City Hall, we were asked to give a brief delivery method, pros and cons of a CMAR process versus a low bid process. And here we go. Up on the screen, the black dashes are a typical project timeline. Where we're starting with this one now is design development, jumping into construction documents, then it goes to the bidding process, then construction and closeout. Typical process through most every project. The top of that line is a low bid, a typical low bid project where the architect does estimates throughout the design process. It goes to the prospective contractors to engage subcontractors and then eventually get that bid number that that's what they believe this is gonna cost to build. The bottom portion is the CMAR process. The highlight of this is the CMAR process gets on board now with us, and they're with us throughout the whole design process. They are the ones doing the estimate. They're engaging trade partners to get the estimate versus relying on us, our historical knowledge, current projects, that sort of thing to produce the estimate. Again, any of their pre-construction services, they are evaluating materials. construction sequencing, any details that they see because they're looking at the drawings early on that they think, hey, we could do it better this way, and advising the drawings and ultimately, hopefully, saving time and money on the project. At the bidding process, it still is a low bid project. It's just the CMOR handles that bidding process. They go out to their trade partners and get bid numbers, and then they will give you a GMP, a gross maximum price, to give you the building, which we'll talk about in a little bit. But that's kind of the basic timeline of CMAR versus a low bid project. Matt, anything I'm forgetting?

No, I think you nailed it. Can you hear me all right?

Yes. Yes. Okay. I'm going to go to the next slide. Just again, a couple of different highlights. The low bid design bid build delivery method, the bidders really only see the drawings at the time of the bids. They don't have coordination time with the design team and the owners throughout the process. Low bid projects are really affected by that bidding climate. If that bidder is really busy at the time the drawings come out, they're going to bid a higher number. Seems to be the way it works. Also, the low bid process, if there's a long lead item, we're being told like electrical gear again, for example, is a long lead item. They only get the drawings at the bidding time. They don't have the ability to manage any long lead item procurement issues during the whole process. Excuse me. The CMAR contractor is also doing constructability reviews, as I mentioned throughout. They're also able to potentially get an early bid package out. They could do site work, they could do that electrical switch gear, you know, whatever gets approved and whatever you guys feel comfortable with. City Hall project, for example, has the building, this building and the site, the furniture package. Low bidders, it seems like they have a tougher time managing a phased project. A lot of times there's remobilization fees that come into play whereas a CMAR seems to be able to manage those a little bit better. Again, skipping over to the CMAR side, they're the ones completing the cost estimate and they're engaging subcontractors and doing constructability reviews from the get-go. And again, doing that's gonna let them look at materials. Is there a different manufacturer? Is there a different source? Is this one readily available? Is this one performed the same but cost less? and they can advise us and the owners on all that. From the get-go, one of the benefits is on the previous slide is they're doing that cost estimate right off the bat, which is really the benefit of having them on board. Whatever that estimate is too, that just allows us to taper the design or blend the design to that estimate as long as it comes in on budget. And then if it doesn't come in on budget, then we start looking at ways to cut back. Mr. Mayor, I think one of your questions early on was what happens in that redesign phase. Having them on board early avoids most of that. I'm not gonna say all of that, but it avoids a vast majority of that, whereas we capture all that in the construction documents, and there is not that value engineering process at the end. A big one during construction is the CMAR will have a contingency built into their number. that allows for any of those unforeseen site conditions or anything that, things pop up during construction, right? So any of those things that need to be changed, that's a change order of the low bid process. There is no change orders unless it's an owner driven scope type thing with the CMAR process. That's that slide, any questions? Matt, anything to add?

No, sounds good.

This one I'll turn over to Matt virtually. or do you want me to do it matt oh go ahead yeah you can do it um again some of the benefits of the cmar process are really getting them on board building that team vision right off the bat again the material and systems review the constructability reviews the ability to you know potentially get early site packages or early construction packages whatever those may be if they can identify some of those again managing the bidding process it's still is a public bid project. The CMAR divvies up the bid packages to the appropriate subs, and they manage that, versus city staff and us trying to manage all that. And the CMAR process, again, manages the overall construction budget with that contingency fund that's already built into the project. Next slide. cmar process does require a couple extra steps it is an rfq process which means the city along with us we're we're typically more advisors in that role but the city has the ability to pick that contractor based on qualifications and based on who they are not necessarily the low number typical timeline you know if you have this rfq today that could be run through september gather responses and do interviews of those contractors in October, then however long the contracting process takes, I would assume that would be wrapped up in November. Included a timeline because really from our perspective is we want, I would love a CMAR to be on board and take a look at the concept package that we've already delivered, verify the budget number that we sent, and then we're off and running versus continuing on down the road and then having to redo a bunch of work at bedtime. That is the presentation. Matt, anything else to add? Otherwise, I'll turn it over for questions.

No. Good on my end.

It certainly seems to be a lot more efficient to me. I can think of, for instance, we just completed a sewer lift station at exit 298. The startup of that was delayed by about six months, waiting for just a couple of key components on that. And there's a lot of work out there right now. Contractors are busy, and I think it makes a lot of sense to get the contractors engaged right away so they can anticipate when the project's gonna be coming out for bid so that they'll be ready for it and possibly planning for that. So I like the sound of that. And Dale, I think staff is on board with this option as well.

Yeah, we are. And with the CMAR process, we have to have at least two RFPs to move forward per NRS. So we'd at least have at least two CMARs to look at in the process.

Okay. Yeah, and depending on the timing of a project, I mean, it doesn't happen very often, but I can remember there was a project not long ago that we didn't get any bids returned on it, or you get one bid and it's, you know, really high. So I think this seems a lot more efficient to me. Anyone else?

I think the CMR project would make it go a lot quicker. The longer we delay this, the more it's gonna cost. If this is stretched out and delayed over time, then construction costs seem like they go up daily. We gotta get it built as soon as we can.

I think you answered my question. We'll have two bids. It's something to compare to. Yeah, I'm on board with CMAR.

Minimum two bids for the CMAR. Thank you. And then when you go to bidding for the actual construction, you have to at least have one or you can go out for other bid alternatives. Thank you.

Marissa, do you have any questions?

No questions. I just had a couple of comments. I'm definitely in favor of the CMAR bidding process because of the elimination. Hopefully we can at least limit some of the change orders that would be coming through. And as Lombard Conrad has kind of referenced, that they're going to engage the contractor now so that they can see and make sure what is being designed is actually going to fit the budget that the city has created. So it not only is allowing for those budgets to be acknowledged it's allowing for a limitation on change orders we try to really restrict those you brought up efficiency and then also it gives local contractors and subcontractors to get engaged with this process currently and then kind of share time frames and numbers and whatnot with the design professionals so that it makes definitely a more efficient and smooth and streamlined process especially It's got a lot of moving pieces with the operations, especially in the back with the mobiles that we will need to relocate those employees, figure out where they're gonna go during the construction process and all of that. So I'm definitely in favor of this.

Okay, good. Excuse me. I'm definitely in favor of it. I like the concept of it because the design, bid, build, you have to have the complete set of plans before you go any further. And I like this because you can start If you've got the once we get this in place, you can start framing, you can start the shell of the building, whatever it might be now or the underground at least. So and that keep costs down. I think it'll be a lot more efficient for us as well.

It still does have to go through the permit process, you know, and sometimes that they want the whole building. I'm looking at Kathy's direction, but sometimes they want the whole, you know, the whole building. design first, but yes, absolutely, they can get rolling on whatever packages we can get done early.

Yeah, at least get the ball rolling, like you said, on the long lead times. We all know how that is.

Get switchgear time and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah, so I'm in favor as well. Great. All right, does someone have a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I move to direct LCA to pursue the CMAR method of the city hall project. All right, is there a second?

I'll second it. All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye.

Aye.

And aye, also vote aye for approval. All right, thank you, Ben. All right, I think this next one's going to take a little while. I'm going to skip ahead on a couple of items. Let's go to item D. Presentation and update from Flight Alliance of Northeastern Nevada, FAN, and on the organization's impact on flight services for the Elko Regional Airport and matters related thereto. Informational only, non-action item. FAN is a nonprofit organization formed to bring together private and public entities within the Elko Regional Airport. regional airport catchment area to maintain and expand eko commercial flight service the city is a member of the organization fan will provide an update on the membership increase load factors and impact to the community jan

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, City Council. So Flight Alliance of Northeastern Nevada has been in place for a little over two, two and a half, three years. And so we're just providing an update on some of the increased flight numbers for Elko Regional Airport. And so I believe, did you want to say a few words, Mayor Keener, or do you want me to put, Connie Anderson with Calco Collaborative is going to speak for us, but I just wanted you to.

Do you know what, before I do, I see that we have our county manager here, Amanda Osborne. Amanda, did you care to make any comments or anything?

Good afternoon, mayor and city council members. My name is Amanda Osborne. I'm the Elko County manager and been working together now with the city on this private nonprofit local government collaboration now for the last couple of years and just really, I think this group has been instrumental in ensuring that we keep and expand our commercial air service, which is so important, not just for the city of Elko or Elko County, but also for neighboring communities like Battle Mountain and even Eureka County. So I just want to thank you all so much for your support and for allowing us to be part of this initiative and hope to see it continue to grow a little bit. Of course, we've As the group, we've looked at services to not just Las Vegas, but also Reno and some interest state connectivity, which I think is really important. So again, I just want to say thank you for all that you've done for our communities, not just Elko, but those surrounding us.

Right, and the whole idea is that we're hoping to be able to claw our way out of a nasty COVID-era residue, the minimum rate guarantees that came in after COVID. Across the country, flight numbers dropped significantly. We had two flights daily with a 75-seat aircraft. prior to COVID. And one flight was cut a day and they said, Hey, Elko, if you want to continue to enjoy commercial flight service, you're going to have to pay to play. And fortunately, we had some COVID funding that we were able to use in that respect, it ran out probably about 18 months or 24 months ago. We still were in a really bad situation. We ended up spending about $1.2 million last year on flight subsidies. The main reason why FAN was formed, as Jan mentioned, was to to be able to bring in other public entities like Elko County, like Lander County, and private businesses as well. I probably forget some of them. They'll be up on the slide later. I'm happy to report that our flight numbers are now back to 2019 levels, which is a really great thing. The return overnight flight is performing very well. In two of the last three months, we've actually exceeded the quota, so we've gotten a slight reimbursement from SkyWest on that. However, if you're flying, please consider that midday flight. The midday flight needs some help. We don't have the passenger loads where we need to see them on that flight. Yeah, I'm just encouraged with the growth, and I don't know if Bill is on the line. Is he joining us? Do you know from Flight Planners?

I'm not sure if he's joining or not, but I do think that Connie has some of the statistics that she'll share.

Okay, Connie, go ahead. It's your turn.

Hi there. Connie Anderson with Calco Collaborative on behalf of the Flight Alliance for Northeastern Nevada, for the record. I believe we have a quick video we're going to play before I speak. So I'll turn that over. I think the city, okay.

The other public entity was Elko Convention and Visitors Authority. Thank you for that, Annette. Elko Federal Credit Union and Jan, what were the other ones as well?

Equinox Gold and Elko County and Lander County.

All right, and if you see people from those entities, please thank them for their participation. There's other entities we'd love to get on board, especially Nevada Gold Mines, and so we're still working on that front. All right, Connie, did you have anything else to add to that?

Mayor Keener, we can go through the presentation if you'd like with some more statistics.

Sure.

Okay, wonderful. So you'll see the presentation in front of you. I'm not queuing. I'll ask the individual with the slide deck to queue to the next slide. So please go to the next two more slides. We'll go to the third slide. Thank you so much. So as mentioned, Elko Regional Airport has seen growth since the Flight Alliance of Northeastern Nevada was created and since the pandemic. And we saw year over year flight increases from 2024 to 2025. And now into 2026, we have even more flights coming into the region with 11 weekly flights. So multiple days, we have two flights a day that Mr. Keener just mentioned earlier. You'll see that we have increase in passengers year over year. Each of those passengers coming in is economic revenue to the city, to the county, and surrounding counties as well. You'll notice that we still have a gap. In 2025, we had 31,000, almost 32,000 passengers, but we had 50,000 seats. So all of those seats are available for individuals within Elko to fly out. or individuals from elsewhere to fly into Elko Regional and then throughout the area. Our load factor is increasing. in that bottom right corner. What that means is that even as we have more and more seats entering the market, more and more people are sitting on those seats. So that's good news. That means we're meeting demand. We're keeping up with demand, though we do want demand to be a little bit higher. You'll see that in the video you saw, we've had a really impressive first half in summer of 2026. So our load factor is actually closer to 67% now. When you go down to the next slide, you'll see some of those updated numbers I mentioned with 67% load factor in 2026 so far, which is incredibly impressive. We really, our goal is to get to about 80%. So we are rising and getting there every day. You'll notice here on the right hand side, 40% of passengers are coming into Elko Regional Airport, which means 60% are locals, citizens who were serving and allowing them to travel elsewhere. They may be traveling elsewhere for leisure travel, they may be traveling for business, they may be traveling for healthcare or other personal needs. I know when I've flown on the flight Recently, I saw quite a few families and I know Mayor Keener will also share his experiences with more and more families. So the flight helps provide economic impact to the region, but it also provides a quality of life benefit for locals who can go from Elko Regional Airport with a quick, less than one hour flight to Salt Lake City and then connect to over 200 destinations. Next slide. Since the City of Elko has been such an instrumental part in FAN and forming FAN, and there's been quite a few successes of the organization in its short two to three year history, as Jan mentioned. The group has worked together to receive a federal grant, which provides nearly a million dollars in that minimum revenue guarantee budget. that Mr. Keener mentioned. So that's great money that's flowing in to the region to help support the region overall. You'll see here that as of July 2026, passenger activity returned to pre-pandemic levels, meaning we're seeing just as many passengers coming in and out of Elko Regional Airport pre-pandemic as now in July. In fact, July 2026 was our strongest month with over 3,600. If Bill was here, he'd remember the exact number. It was over 3,600 passengers in July. That's the strongest number since 2013, which is a huge accomplishment. And then finally, the group has launched marketing and recruitment efforts to help continue building the momentum about flying out of EKO. So marketing efforts help individuals in the catchment basin here know they can fly out of Elko Regional Airport to other locations. Recruitment campaigns help to bring more funds into FAN so that as Amanda mentioned earlier, we can look at other interest state opportunities to continue connecting Elko Regional Airport. And then that has also helped to secure additional private businesses and then the commitment of other municipal partners such as Lander County. Next slide. We'll go to the next slide too. This is all in your packet so you can dive into anything you want, but want to make sure you have time to get to everything that you're interested in. You'll see here, as I mentioned earlier, through Elko Regional Airport, travelers can connect to 233 markets within one stop, which is Amazing for the market of our size, and so that is a huge opportunity for locals and then also business travelers who are coming into the region.

If we go down to the next slide.

As I mentioned before, Elko helps to connect, Elko Regional helps connect us globally, it helps provide healthcare access, it helps support mining operations in the region, and it helps us with overall business and community growth. Next slide. You'll see current members here. We've mentioned those a couple times that we thank all of our current members. We thank the City of Elko for being a founding member. Next slide, please. We touched earlier on the minimum revenue guarantee and how things change since the pandemic in the aviation world. But just a little bit of an explainer there is that small markets can be risky for airlines. They want to make sure that they're having revenue guaranteed to them. There's a lot of markets who completely lost air service after the pandemic. FAN came in to help provide that revenue floor and fill the gap so that the planes can keep running to Elko and even expand. There's always an opportunity to get rid of that minimum revenue guarantee when we reach critical mass of demand and of travelers. And as I mentioned, we are nearing that with 67% load factors, and our goal is to get to 80. There's always concern without reaching that floor of that 80%. that a flight could exit. However, we have great relationships with SkyWest and Delta and continue to improve that load factor. So I think we feel we're on a very positive upward trajectory. Next slide, please. Mary Keener talked on some of the negative impacts if we don't have the flight, so I don't need to go into all of those details here, but you'll see that there are very potential negative impacts to the region overall without a flight. Next slide please. Melissa L. Municipal partners cities and counties in the region, who helps support the alliance greatly and then we also have other partners who help provide in kind support or other membership fees as a private partners next slide. As I mentioned earlier, there is economic impact. These numbers are from a Nevada Department of Transportation study that was conducted. And based upon the number of roundtrip passengers that come into Elko Regional Airport, along with the economic impact of those individuals, We estimate that there's over $41 million of economic impact amongst those 15,800 plus passengers. This year, we're on track to have quite a few more passengers coming in than that. So we'll see even greater economic impact this year. What that equates to is nearly a $30 return on investment of every dollar that's spent on MRG. Then we'll go to the next slide. You'll see that there's a lot of places your investment goes. It's not simply to the minimum revenue guarantee. A large portion of it goes there, but there's a lot of efforts to sustain and advocate for continued air service in other ways. Working with airlines, connecting with them, coordinating with other partners in the region, advocating at a statewide level and beyond. And then finally, our last slide is about your membership. We have two individuals, Jan Baum and Reese Keener who sit on the boards. They're always advocating for the best use of every dollar that comes into FAN. They're getting access to all the flight data and insights. We're helping to market your membership and your support of FAN through fannevada.org. We're printing flyers banners that we're going to be using at Sky Fair next weekend and around town to help continue to increase awareness so thank you very much to the city of Elko for your support of fan and I think that's the end of our presentation great thanks Connie any questions I'll just follow up with an additional comment

About two years ago, SkyWest began flying a new product in Elko, which is a CRJ550. And previous to that, they had had these old 70-seat jets. These ones, the cabins have been completely refurbished. They're 50 seats, which is a much better fit for this market. And they're comfortable to fly on. You can get to Salt Lake in 35 minutes. You don't have to drive three hours. You don't have to park at the Salt Lake Airport and then wait in line for up to an hour going through security. So it's just a much more efficient process when you can fly out of Belco. And I'd encourage everyone to just check ticket prices. booking the entire trip through Delta. So Jan, anything else that you wanted to add?

I think you hit it right there, Mayor Keener. Just remember our reminder to everybody to always check the flying out of Elko to see what the price is. Sometimes you're very surprised it's $100 more or $100 less. And so if people just remember to check, that's the main thing we can ask.

All right. I was talking with a gentleman this weekend at the fair. He owns the Boomer's Casino or the betting place, and he flew up. He usually drives to Elko. But he said the pricing on it, I mean, considering a six-hour drive versus flying up, he said it was well worth it. So he was pretty happy about the flight, and he was real positive about it. That's great.

All right, well, thank you, Connie, and thank you, Amanda. Did you have any follow-up at all? All right.

Thank you so much.

Appreciate it, Connie. All right, let's move up to a new business, and this is a companion to the... The item that we heard with the construction manager at risk, item with Lombard Conrad.

Mayor Keehner.

Yes.

So before you do that item, the new business, I have to apologize to the board and my recommended motion on the method of going CMAR or the bid, like Dave said, I have on there directing LCA to pursue the CMR. It should have been directing the city of Elko to do the CMR or the low bid, and so we need to change that motion before we go forward.

Okay, all right, duly noted. All right, let me read this item in. New business item 9A, review consideration and possible authorization to staff to solicit a request for qualifications for the Elko City Hall construction manager at risk, CMAR, and matters related thereto for possible action. based on the direction from the city council on the Elko City Hall project delivery method. If the city council chooses to pursue the CMR delivery method, which we did, city staff is requesting authority to solicit requests for qualifications for the construction manager at risk. If the city council chooses the low bid project delivery method, this item does not require action. Jan.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So since the City Council chose to go forward with the CMAR process, now we are asking for direction to go out for an RFQ. And as I just said, we will need to amend that first motion to direct the City of Elko to go out to a CMAR, not LCA.

Okay.

Do you have anything to add at all, Ben?

All right, any questions or concerns from the public on this item? Are there any board questions? All right, is there a motion amended in the way that Ms. Baum presented?

We have to do that motion first, and then we go to this one, correct?

Correct.

On the presentation. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm going back to presentations. Back to presentations.

And this new motion needs to replace the prior motion that was voted on.

Okay, all right. And the prior motion was on item 6B, right? Chip, do you want to read that motion again?

Let me grab it here. Is it 6B? No, not 6B. Oh, yeah. Here we go, 6B, okay.

Yeah, I'm not recommended in the LCA City of Elko.

Regarding, yeah... So Mr. Mayor, I'll amend my motion to direct staff Elko City to pursue the CMAR method for the city of Elko, okay?

For the Elko City Hall project.

For the Elko City Hall project.

Okay, we have a motion and a second.

I'll second that.

And we have a second. Okay, so just to clarify, this is invalidating the action that we took earlier. on item 6B, and we're just changing the wording on the motion a little bit. All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye.

Thank you. Sorry for the confusion.

Marissa?

Marissa, can you hear us? Yes, I vote aye.

Okay. And I also vote aye for approval. All right. Okay. Now we'll move on to new business item 9A. We need a motion for this one as well, correct?

Right. Separate action. Okay.

All right.

Anything else? Are we waiting for the motion? I'm waiting for a motion. Okay, sorry about that. Mr. Mayor, I'll move to authorize staff to solicit a request for qualifications for the City Hall Construction Management at Risk, CMAR.

Second.

All right, all in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye.

Aye.

And I also vote aye for approval. All right, let's go to new business item 9B, review consideration and possible approval of a request from Brandy McDaniel on behalf of Stockman's Hotel to close the downtown parking corridor between 3rd Street and 4th Street on Friday, October 30th, 2026 from 4 p.m. the october 31st 2026 until midnight for elko's harvest days and haunted nights event and matters related thereto for possible action brandy mcdaniel is requesting to close the downtown parking corridor between third street and fourth street for harvest days and haunted nights event the event is geared for all ages with vendors activities and live music The event will start on Friday, October 30th at 4 p.m. and end at 10 p.m. and restart on October 31st at 9 a.m. and end at midnight. Annette?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Yes, so Brandy is here to explain her event. But yes, we're just requesting to close that corridor between 3rd and 4th. And this is geared for all ages. They're going to even have like a kid zone for a bunch of vendors and a lot of activities for the kids. So I'll let Brandy talk about it.

Hi, Mayor. How are you? Good evening, mayor and city council members. Thanks for having me tonight. It's been 10 years since I've been in this room, I just realized today. Jamboree, we quit 10 years ago and that was the last time I had to address the council. So thanks for having me tonight. I'm pretty excited to be here and talk about harvest days and haunted nights. A bit of background, maybe first about myself. Again, Brandy McDaniel. I've been in this community majority of my life. I have a lot of background in mining. My profession is in mining 32 years, 33 this year. And I also have a lot of background and experience in community events. Most of you will have known me historically, served many years with the Elko Expo, helping with the golf tournament. I did sit on the board and finished up the Jamboree in the final years. I started Country Under the Stars with a few other folks, and Rides and Rods that's happening this weekend actually started within the Jamboree, for those of you that might remember that. So I'm really happy to see that event doing so well. If I could just quickly talk about what brought this about. Again, stopped Jamboree 10 years ago. I've had a lot of ideas since then. I get frequent calls about bringing motorcycle Jamboree back. But I've had a lot of other ideas that I've wanted to bring in front of the council for many years. I took a time out personally. following Route 91 and needed to take some time off, which I did, and that's why it's taken me 10 years to get back in front of you. This event specifically came as a result of a couple conversations I've had in the past year with many members of Elko, and I'm really excited about this event because it's really a family-oriented fun event that's really gonna bring together Nevada Day, Halloween, and give an opportunity for our locals to get out, and visit different businesses. I'll talk a little bit about a couple of those events that I think is gonna do that. I have presented the packet to the council with a safety plan. I spent a lot of time doing stakeholder engagement here. I met first with Stockman's, obviously they're the, you know, the primary stakeholder there with Stockman's. I've met with commercial. I also, from then went and met with, Chief Ward and JJ talked to the city and now I'm in front of you. But if we could just let me just talk about the schedule events. So the reason we will start Friday, it will be a 4 p.m. kickoff. If you look here, what we're going to do is We want to do what's called a witch walk. And the concept behind this is we're going to have a witch contest in Elko. So we're going to ask that all businesses that would like to participate in this contest, basically they will decorate a witch. City Council could even participate in this event. So you put a witch in front of your business, and for two weeks, we will put a map out. Your witch has to be done by October 15th. There will be a map presented where people can go business to business. It really is going to encourage people to get into businesses, get out and about, and vote on witches. And then Friday night, we're going to try to get a shuttle that's going to take folks around, and we're going to do similar to a poker walk. We'll do a witch walk. And those votes will lead up, we're gonna do music outside, that's kind of the intent on Friday night. There's not a ton, I would just say the witch walk and music is what's gonna happen Friday night, if I summarize that. And then as we move into Saturday, that's kind of when it's an all day, bring the family, bring the kids. So what the commercial has agreed to do is we'll do a family fun zone. Think trunk or treat, pumpkin decorating, kids come out with costumes and we have a contest. Then throughout the day we can do face painting and things of that. We'll have music in the corridor just on that one block. If you're familiar with what we used to do with Jamboree, we set that stage back against the post office and the music will then come toward 4th Street, if you will. and there will be vendors in there. We will start small. If you can see the map here, we really only intend on having about 20 vendors max. So there'll be a stage, there'll be some vendors, and then there'll be an area that we're calling a burn area, and I'll talk about that in a minute. But one thing I want to point out here is we are not asking for any road closure. We believe and we've reviewed the safety of this corridor in particular. The one thing I might ask the city, and I did put this in my application, There are four crosswalk areas there in that corridor and if we could paint the white stripes before this event and I don't know if that's possible it would be I think beneficial to us to help direct foot traffic is to use those crosswalks. We also have folks out there trying to make sure that that's happening through volunteers. So again, no road closures. That was the specific request of Dave and the Stockmans for his business and to accommodate that. So the witch burn, where this concept comes from is the witch contest will hopefully generate a winner, it will generate a winner, and there'll be a rotating trophy. We'll put the business's name and the intent will be every year we'll do this and we'll rotate this trophy. The losing which, or the which with the least amount of votes, you've heard about Runamucca and the burning of the bike, and there's several other similar events, but whoever loses, We will burn something small. Don't think we're going to put a big witch in a fire, you know, pallet burning or anything like that. And I've talked to JJ and asked for their assistance in controlling that burn. It will be very small in a barrel, but that witch will no longer... be allowed back we'll be welcomed back so that's kind of Saturday leading up to Saturday night we would like to have an all ages costume street dance so that will be where families are welcome to come out there will be music outside and we will have an actual costume contest what's going to be happening inside the Stockman's is an Ozzy Osbourne tribute concert that we will sell tickets to and generate you know hopefully what we're trying to do here is put put some heads in beds and get some folks to travel in and we've had a lot of excitement about this event already I've kept really limited details out until I get the approval of the council So I'm happy to answer any questions. That was real quick. I apologize. I can't see out of my right eye right now, so I can't read through all my notes, but I'm happy to just answer questions or talk through questions you guys have.

Looks like a nice event. It'll bring a lot of people downtown. I think it'll be fun.

What type of vendors are you looking at?

So we'll max it at four food trucks. We are teaming. So this is a for-profit event. Let me just say that first. But we are partnering with three nonprofits. So a portion of the proceeds will go back to those three nonprofits. Three of those will be nonprofit booths. And then we'll sell vendors. And we've had a lot of interest, everything from clothing

Oh, what's it called?

You know, tarot card readings, those type of things that really fit in the Halloween theme, which I think is fun. But yeah, I mean, I don't have any restrictions as it sits today, but we'll definitely, we have the right to refuse if it doesn't fit the venue. And they'll only be about 15 at the most. We're gonna start small, look, I mean, these events, just like all these events, you start with a concept, you start small, and you see if the community's really interested. And I think they will be, and I think this is something that can grow for years and years to come. This is also a plug and play model. If you look at this, you really could do something like this in Carlin, you could do it in Wells, the county could really embrace something like this over this weekend, so.

Any questions or concerns from the public on this item?

All right. One thing I should mention is I did put in my safety plan that I would like to do a formal final walkthrough with the chief and the fire department the week of October 15th, 20th. So 10 days before the event, we'll just walk the corridor and make sure that we're aligned on the layout and how we're going to handle the burn and all those type of things. That's something that we haven't formally done before when we've done downtown events, but I think it's important. It's maybe some lessons learned from previous events.

Is there a Nevada Day Parade planned for that weekend?

I believe there is. I believe it's Friday earlier, though.

It's earlier in the day. It'll be at 11 o'clock during the day on Friday. And then this event doesn't start until 4.

Randy, you might consider calling on Battle Born Youth Challenge Academy for help with safety and security. I appreciate that, yeah. They did a good job at the fair this weekend. Yeah, they had a great turnout. They were all over.

Awesome. And I'm going to call Just Serve, too. That was a great introduction there. I'll reach out to them as well.

All right, thank you.

Yeah, no question. Thanks.

All right, board. Looks like a good event. I guess the only concern I have is where the guests are going to park for the Stockmans, but they've got that lot there, and I would imagine that they'll use the lot on the corner of 5th and Silver Street for their guest parking.

Sorry, just a quick.

All right, if there's no further discussion, is there a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I'll move to approve the request from Brandy McDaniel on behalf of the Stockmans to close downtown parking corridor between 3rd Street and 4th Street on Friday, October 30th, 2026 from 4 p.m. to October 31st, 2026 until midnight for Elko's Harvest Days and Haunted Nights event.

All right, is there a second? Second. All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye.

Aye.

Aye. Mayor, I need to abstain because I am involved with the event.

Okay. All right, and I also vote aye for approval then. All right. And then, Brandy, I guess just make sure that it's marked that vehicles will be towed if they're not out of there by, what, 4 p.m. or whatever on Friday.

Okay.

Good, good, all right, great, good luck with that. All right, do we have Dr. Steinman?

Yes, he is online.

Okay, very good. Let's go to item, presentations, item C. presentation, discussion, and possible adoption of the City of Elko five-year strategic plan presented by Dr. Fred Steinman, Director of the University Center for Economic Development at the University of Nevada, Reno, and matters related thereto for possible action. The City of Elko staff and community have been working with Fred Steinman and the University Center for Economic Development team over the past year to establish a five-year strategic plan for the City of Elko. Dr. Steinman will present the proposed final plan for adoption. Jan.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, City Council. So we finally have the final product of the five-year strategic plan for the city of Elko. And Fred Steinman, Dr. Fred Steinman had to join us remotely. And then he has a presentation. So this is the attached to the agenda is what Annette has up is the official plan, which is about 202 pages. And then there is a presentation that is a small summary that Fred will present. Are you there, Fred?

Go ahead. I am here. Dr. Steinman, you have our rapt attention. This is important stuff. Go right ahead.

Well, thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council, Manager Baum. Also with me is Anya Mason, one of our strategic planning and economic development coordinators who is heavily involved in both the execution of the strategic planning workshops with staff, as well as the development of the technical report that you have in your agenda package as well. I do have a relatively short presentation just to summarize the key elements of this new five-year strategic plan.

I think I just saw the title slide go by.

Okay. Again, Fred Steinman, Director of the University Center with the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno for the record. Just to give the council staff and the public kind of an overview of the process, if we can go to the second slide. The process was begun in early 2025 with the execution of a fixed fee agreements between the city of Elko and the University of Nevada, Reno to complete the development of this new five year strategic plan. We began that process with a series of internal and external stakeholder meetings. Either one on one or small group interviews with city staff each member of the city council, as well as representatives from elko county the elko county school district and other key stakeholders that the city of elko routinely engages with. While we were completing those internal and external stakeholder meetings, we also developed and completed a comprehensive community needs assessment survey, as well as completed four separate community meetings where individual members of the community had an opportunity to meet with myself and members of the UCEDD team to complete a series of facilitated exercises, Again, to generally get feedback from the public, be it business owners, property owners, residents, individuals with a stake in the community, as well as the strategic direction of the city of Elko. Once that community and organizational assessment work was completed working with the city manager we scheduled and completed three separate strategic planning workshops, the first being held in July of 2025 and then, of course, the last one being held in February of 2026. Since February 2026, myself, Anya, and other members of the UCEDD team have been working with the City Manager, staff, members of the Council to continue to revise, refresh, and fine-tune the key elements of this new five-year 2026 through 2030 strategic plan for the City of Elko. And that includes refinement and completion of the core values, the mission and vision statements, and of course, each of the individual strategic goals. Next slide. Very quickly, the core values that kind of serve as the underlying foundation in terms of expectation of behavior for all that represents and work for the City of Elko. Based on the Action E model, definitions of each of these core values are found in the technical report that summarizes the entire strategic plan. But generally speaking, the core values consist of accountability, communication and collaboration, trust and integrity, improvement and innovation, outreach and service, nurturing our, the city's employees, and overall economic and fiscal responsibility. And of course, again, working with the city manager and staff, we were able to incorporate the core values into each of the other key elements of the strategic plan, most notably the eight strategic goals and the accompanying objectives, which really serves as the basis of the strategic plan's overall actionable items. Next slide. The strategic mission statement and the strategic vision statement are used to first define the city of Elko relative to other public sector entities in the city and in the region, kind of differentiate the city's responsibilities relative to other public agencies, such as the county governments, the school districts, state agencies, and even federal agencies that serve the people of the city of Elko and the broader region. While the vision statement is really an overarching longer term objective. Hopefully by 2030, once the individual strategic goals and objectives are completed, the vision statement should be realized through the completion of those individual goals and objectives. For this new five-year strategic plan, the new five-year strategic mission statement for the city is stated as such, the mission of the city of Elko is to serve its citizens with a safe, clean, and thriving community through a responsive, transparent, fiscally responsible municipal government. Again, highlighting and emphasizing several of the core values that serve as the foundation of this new five-year strategic plan. The longer term strategic vision statement is stated as such. The city of Elko will leverage its strengths through service to promote innovation, protect resources and foster a unified sense of quote one Elko. And again, emphasizing several of the individual core values as inspirational guidance for the implementation and achievement of those individual strategic goals and objectives. Next slide. As mentioned already, or at least alluded to already, the key elements of the new five-year strategic plan consist of eight individual strategic goals, each one detailed in the technical report that summarizes the overall strategic plan. Just in way of quick summary, each of the eight individual strategic goals does carry a series of accompanying objectives, as well as the identification of individual components of the city government, including the administrative side that will be primarily responsible for continued implementation and achievement of those individual goals. In addition to those accompanying objectives as well as kind of a responsible party, each individual strategic goal also has a series of actionable items. And then, of course, identification, at least a preliminary identification of potentially needed resources and existing capital resources that the organization will either need to build or could potentially use to support implementation and achievement of that particular strategic goal. Next slide. Again, each of the individual strategic goals are detailed within the technical report within your agenda packets. I just kind of wanted again to read into the record the actual goals. I'll look past the objectives, but again, they are listed here. Strategic goal number one to strengthen economic vitality, development and business growth with four accompanying objectives. And of course, in parentheses or in brackets in the italicized print are the elements of the city government that will be most responsible for achievement and implementation of the goal itself. Strategic goal number two, enhance infrastructure, parks, recreation, golf course, and community development. And again, three accompanying objectives with this individual goal as well. Next slide. For strategic goal number three, advance public safety and community resilience with three individual accompanying objectives with the police department, fire department, and emergency management services serving as primarily responsible for achievement and implementation of this particular goal. And for strategic goal number four, improve essential public works infrastructure, municipal services, and utilities. Again, with four individual accompanying objectives that are further detailed within the technical report itself. On to the next slide. Goal number five, to strengthen and develop a high performing and adaptive workforce. This individual goal has five individual objectives. And during the course of the strategic planning workshops was really identified as a high priority area for the city government and organization moving forward. especially as the city and the community in the broader region continues to grow. There's been a marked increase in the demand of public services that the city is expected to provide, and that of course will lead to greater demand on staff. So again, continuing to invest in the existing high-performing and adaptive workforce that already supports the provision of various public services and resources was made a primary goal within the new five-year strategic plan. For strategic goal number six, strengthen fiscal stewardship and sustainable governments, Three individual objectives are outlined within the strategic plan itself. This again is a goal that directly ties to several of the individual core values and the commitment that the city government, its staff, its elected officials have to the citizens of the city of Elko and those that depend upon the municipal government for a wide range of public services. Next slide. Our final two strategic goals that again, comprise this particular set of core or key elements of the strategic plan includes strategic goal number seven, enhance community engagement and quality of life with three individual accompanying objectives. And then finally strategic goal number eight, advance major civic and regional infrastructure projects through coordinated planning, intergovernmental partnerships and funding strategies. which includes four individual objectives, most notably Objective 8.1, the planning for new City Hall, an agenda item already considered by the City Council earlier tonight. To kind of wrap up a summary of the key elements of the strategic plan, the next slide has a list of both organizational priority issues as well as community priority issues. As a public entity, the line between the strategic plan for an organization like a city government and a community are often blurred. And of course, the city wants to be responsive and acknowledge or aware of those changes within the community itself and internalizing those community issues into the actions of the city through its strategic plan as well. For the organizational priority issues, those priority issues are divided into four specific areas. First, to improve sustainability and organizational financial and non-financial resources. Certainly, as we know, Nevada's fiscal system is very limiting when it comes to the ability of local governments, especially municipalities, to provide a wide range of services, especially when those services are in increased levels of demand. Secondly, infrastructure facilities and capital improvements, notably again, a new city hall, but also improvements to other major public facilities within the city of Elko that the city government is responsible for, and the planning of other major infrastructure, notably transportation infrastructure, roads, sidewalks, trails, connecting different parts of the community were identified as a major organizational priority issue. by those participants, members of the council and members of staff that participated in the workshops. Third, continued improvement of organizational activities and processes. Again, opportunities to enhance and increase organizational efficiency and effectiveness, essentially driving down the per unit cost of providing services to the public, thereby becoming and maintaining the city status as a good fiscal officer of those public resources. And then finally, community outreach and engagement. continually identifying ways in which the city governments can communicate effectively and productively with members of the public to continue to identify issues in the community that the community may be having, especially in a relatively high growth environment. On the community priority issues, community services, attainable housing and economic development, self-contained, self-reliant health care services, and improved access and quality of various outdoor and even indoor recreation services were all identified as community issues that members of the public would like to see the City of Elko focus on as part of this new five-year strategic plan. On to the final content slide, next slide, are the responsive and steady state initiatives as part of the resiliency and contingency planning elements that we were able to incorporate into this new five-year strategic plan. The responsive initiatives are more short-term and usually are implemented when a shock or a crisis or an unforeseen event occurs. As part of this new five year strategic plan the city of Elko has identified improved emergency planning preparedness and mitigation strengthening communication and public information capabilities improved infrastructure access and facility improvements. and increase number and effectiveness of new and existing partnerships revenue enhancement and economic diversification as a way in which the city of elko will respond to future potential shocks be it natural human caused or economic as it relates to local conditions in elko Steady state initiatives are the longer term planning efforts, trying to essentially steer the ship away from slamming into an iceberg. The first one in the steady state initiatives is workforce enhancement, training, and employee support. Again, continuing to build on the relatively strong and capable staff that the city already has by continually identifying ways in which the organization can provide additional training and enhancement to employees moving forward. Relative to responsive initiatives, infrastructure improvement replaces replacement and access upgrades. Again, thinking more longer term was the second steady state initiative developed, followed by communication improvements and emergency preparedness. not only between the city of Elko and business owners, property owners, residents and other external stakeholders, but also in partnership with Elko County, the Elko County School District, state agencies and federal agencies to ensure that when an event occurs, there is coordination amongst all providers of public services to those in need of those services themselves. then finally again continuing to emphasize economic diversification and business attraction efforts we know there's a boom and bust cycle to commodity prices especially in the mining and natural resource space we know that the northeastern nevada region as a whole is very dependent upon that industry sector and while mining and natural resource extraction will always be an important and critical part of the cities and regions economic base there are opportunities for diversification and diversification in this case is viewed as more additive adding to the existing economic base as opposed to replacement and move to something else but those really kind of comprise the longer term as well as short-term responsive and steady state initiatives Next slide. Just in terms of next steps beyond this, if received and approved by the City Council tonight, I will update the acknowledgements page of the technical report to reflect approval by the Council on this date. Also, of course, as part of the fixed fee contract between the City of Elko and the University Center for Economic Development, University of Nevada, Reno, our team will work with the City of Elko and staff on the completion of four annual updates over the next five years as the city moves into implementation. With that presentation, more than happy to field any questions than any member of the council may have. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you very much for that, Fred. This didn't come together overnight. I remember attending the various different workshops and they were all, you know, very informative and interesting. And I like the way that you were able to compile the data. and I really like the product that we have here. I like the prioritization of the goals, and if we can do all of this, it'll just be awesome. The city of Henderson, Nevada, as I'm sure some of you might know, received the National Malcolm Baldrige Award for Management Excellence, and obviously they have a lot more resources than than we do, but to quote the old saying, if we chase excellence, hopefully, if we chase perfection, hopefully we can arrive at perfection. So I think this is a great start. It'll give us a good framework for prioritization and decision making. And there's something I've been asking for since the previous city manager, Curtis Calder, uh was in the uh in the chair and i'm just uh really uh glad to see this come together the way that it has so thank you uh to you and anya and the rest of the staff for all the work that you've done on this any questions from the board

Yeah, Fred, could you repeat that again? No, I'm just kidding.

Make sure everybody's aware. No problem. Let's go to the first slide. I don't think you'll have a problem.

Yeah, I was really excited. When we were attending these meetings, putting all this together, the excitement of... that was highlighted there of promoting businesses and new economic development is gonna be really critical for us to solve some of the issues we have. And so that's really great, so.

Yeah, Marissa, do you have any comments?

Yeah, I just wanted to kind of echo the statements as well. Like, thank you for all the hard work, Fred. It has been so appreciated. I know that we spent three days in those meetings and it was critical. And I'm super excited to see this vision statement come forward on one Elko. And of course, the promotion of the new businesses, everyone working together, what we can provide for the community. I'm super excited. And Fred, again, I just want to say thank you. I know we met with you back in 2025 to kind of get this ball rolling. So to see it all come to fruition is amazing.

Again, I'd like to just thank you again. You guys put a heck of a lot of time into this, and I do appreciate it and looking forward to implementing this. It'll be kind of fun to watch.

Thank you.

Any questions or comments from the public on this item? All right. Jan, anything to follow up on?

I'd just like to tell the staff and the public and city council, we just had a lot of participation in this process. We had a lot of participation. And so just thank you to everybody for all the participation. So I believe we have a good roadmap and a good product. And thank you, Dr. Steinman and Anya.

All right. Is there a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I move to approve the adoption of the City of Elko five-year strategic plan.

All right, is there a second? I'll second that. All right, we have a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye.

Aye. Aye.

And I also vote aye. Great, thank you again, Dr. Steinman. Thank you very much. All right, let's go to item 7A, Personnel. Item A, review discussion and evaluation of city manager's job performance for fiscal year 2025-2026, including the possible award of a merit pay increase and matters related thereto for possible action. Current city policy requires the city council to complete a performance evaluation for the city manager appointed official position each year and consider award of a merit increase. All city council members have completed the current performance evaluation for the city manager, and the performance evaluation scoring is included in your packet. Susie.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I don't have a lot to add. The scoring is included. This is your yearly task, and I'm just looking for your approval of the scoring and potential merit increase. Great.

Jan, congratulations on a good report card.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

And I've appreciated working with you, and I'll miss it when I'm gone in a few months.

Absolutely, likewise.

Keep up the good work. Under other factor, I put down work ethic, because you are always on task. You always have a way of getting things done by the deadline, and I just want you to know that I and the board appreciate that.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

I mean, I have a great relationship with you. I mean, every time I need something, I know you're busy throughout the day, but you're quick to respond. I don't expect you to jump through hoops for me. I don't expect that. I know everybody's got jobs to do, but I mean, I just respect what you're doing, and I Appreciate your help with me. Thank you.

Thank you You know some great things and you probably read through that in In the review is it's been so valuable this this last year just the increased communication with me personally and The phone calls, hey, this is going on, just so you know. And being able to, and I liked how you were, a lot of times I delegate to the staff, say, call, Dale, call, so that we're able to keep them to be able to do their job and their production the way they need to do instead of trying to micro, you haven't been a micromanager that I've seen, so I think it's wonderful, so. Thank you and thanks for helping the things you're doing to bring along some of the other departments and planning in those areas too and thank you for what you're doing.

Thank you.

Well, as you can tell, I was the lowest scorer on the performance evaluation. I had some concerns from previous evaluation that I feel there were not... addressed and taken care of. In fact, I think they got worse. So as a result, I did score her lower than anybody else. And I would not be in favor of the cost of living increase or the merit increase because of that.

All right. Marissa.

So I'm just gonna speak in favor of the cost of living increase. I do think that Jan is doing a good job at keeping things organized. We've had some very serious budget issues this year. The only thing that I think I would like to see is just a little bit more transparency with the financials in regards to like change orders not being brought to council prior to them going before council, like that we get a heads up that those are coming as opposed to those just being automatically approved.

I did have just one question. Susie, on one of my scores here, 4.5, I saw there, did I have?

It was marked between the two. Did I?

Okay, I must have, okay. As long as it was legit there. Yes. But yes, it's great there either way, so just making sure I was sure how you'd score that on there. I was like, okay, that's a one, so thank you.

Okay.

All right, any comments from the public? All right, is there a motion?

Mr. Mayor, I would move to approve evaluation scoring and award merit increase to our city manager, Jan Baum.

All right, is there a second?

I'll second.

All right, all those in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

And I also vote aye. Any nays? Nay. All right. All right. Thank you, Susie.

Thank you.

All right. New business. I think we've already taken care of that one.

I don't think we did appropriation.

Yeah, let's do appropriations. Okay. All right. We have regular warrants in the amount of $475,331.19. So moved. Is there a second? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Marissa, did you vote?

I vote aye.

And I also vote aye. Handcut checks including both fiscal year 2026 and fiscal year 2027 in the amount of $604,241.50. So moved. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. And I also vote aye. And for the benefit of the public, these are all posted online in our agenda packet. Okay, now.

One quick question just on one of them. From Elko Overhead Door, which was that on which building? Was that the fire department? Yes. Okay, I thought it was, but I wasn't sure, so thanks.

All right, item 10A, resolution and ordinances. First reading of ordinance number 910, an ordinance amending title three, chapter two of the Elko City Code entitled General Zoning Ordinance in various respects to include revising title three, chapter two, section nine, CCCT Commercial Districts, Title III, Chapter II, Section 10, PCC Commercial Districts, and Title III, Chapter II, Section 11, IBPIC Industrial Districts, bringing the City Zoning Ordinance into compliance with NRS 27802071 and matters related thereto for possible action on july 28 2026 city council took action to initiate this amendment based on nrs 278.02071 requiring that all municipalities adopt an ordinance authorizing by right multi-family housing or mixed use development that includes residential use on property zone for commercial use. Kathy.

Mr. Mayor, members of the council, thank you. As you recall, we had a discussion a little bit in regards to this new law that was passed and adopted into NRS 278 at our initiation. You have a copy of the ordinance included in your agenda packet. The ordinance did go to Planning Commission last month on the 1st. Well, this month on September 1st. And the Planning Commission had great discussion regarding this law. They didn't agree with this being put into the law as far as the taking out the public right to have a public hearing and give comment for any adjacent property owners. that would be able to be notified for a public hearing. And so they did make a recommendation to forward to city council to not adopt this ordinance. That is not my recommendation because it is passed by law for us to adopt an ordinance that allows this by right. And I agree with the planning commission and a lot of their comments that they made. They had a lot of great examples that apartment complexes that were in commercial zoned properties and conditions that were site specific for that specific property. And that is being taken away from the planning commission at this time. So with this new ordinance.

All right. Dave, do you want to comment on that at all? We're not a home rule. We're Dylan's rule.

Yeah, well, I don't know that we're going to be able to do that. The legislature just said, I mean, we've all read it. We have to pass an ordinance. We were supposed to have done it by March 1st, but here we are, establishing multi-housing development or mixed-use development that includes residential use on a property zone for commercial use by right, and a conditional use permit or a special use permit is not by right. It's discretionary. So this amendment to our code, whether we like it or not, I agree there are issues with it. I'll just say, you know, I kind of get the impression that this was written for a different type of community where you have large vacant commercial properties like in downtown areas and things like that. And I think the legislature was probably trying to get people into repurposed commercial spaces in these areas. Lots of examples of this in larger cities around the country. Probably not an issue in Elko, but it's a legislative requirement.

Right, and it would have been nice if they would have done like a population cap for counties in excess of 500,000. So it, you know, applied only to Clark and Washoe. Yes, agreed. But they did not do that. So I did watch the Planning Commission hearing on this, and They all had great comments. And it's unfortunate that, that we really don't have a choice in the matter. It's something you know, we are a political subdivision of the state of Nevada, and we need to bar march to the beat of their drum, regardless if we agree or not. So any comments from the public on this item?

Mr. Mayor, this is Marissa. I would just like to make a couple of comments. I also did attend the planning and zoning meeting when they voted on this and I do agree with their comments. Unfortunately, this is a portion of the legislature in which they tried to implement something for like empty commercial buildings, shopping malls and that kind of stuff where they're trying to utilize the spaces for something positive for community development, allowing and also increasing you know, affordable housing within a sped up process. So I do think that it was kind of an unintended consequence, but it was a result of COVID. And so this is where we just need to be proactive with our legislators and getting Oakland's voice in there that some of the things that they're trying to implement are negative to the rural versus helpful. So I know it's NRS, we have to adopt it, but I did hear their comments and I agree with planning and zoning, but unfortunately with the NRS, we do need to implement that.

All right, anyone else, any comments? I'll entertain a motion to begrudgingly conduct the first reading of ordinance 910.

Mr. Mayor, I move to conduct the first reading of ordinance number 910, direct staff to set the matter for public hearing, second reading, and possible adoption. All right, is there a second?

A second, but I don't like the beat of their drum.

All right, all in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye.

Aye.

And I also vote aye. There were no nays, right? Okay. All right. Resolution and ordinances item 10B. First reading of ordinance 911 and the ordinance amending title eight chapter two utility occupancy of public right of way or public easements, smart dig requirements and city excavation permits and chapter 12 telecommunications of the Elko City Code to implement NRS 709.045 governing agreements for broadband provider access to city managed public rights of way providing for non-discriminatory administration, compensation limitations, cost recovery, and treatment of existing agreements and matters related thereto for possible action. NRS 709.045 effective July 1st, 2026 requires qualifying broadband providers to enter into agreements before accessing public rights of way managed by a local government, requires local governments to execute and perform those agreements in a non-discriminatory manner, and limits compensation required under those agreements to 2% of qualifying annual gross revenue. Amendments to multiple provisions of Title VIII, Chapter 2, and 12 are necessary to implement NRS 709.045. Amendments to Title VIII, Chapter 2 are included in 8-2-3, 8-2-10, 8.2.11, 8.2.12, 8.2.13, 8.2.17, and amendments to Title VIII Chapter 12 are included in 8.12.1, 8.12.4, 8.12.5, 8.12.6, 8.12.13, 8.12.17, 8.12.18, 8.12.25, 8.12.26, 8.12.30, 33. Dale, that's a lot.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, yeah, that was a lot. This ordinance has changed many of those due to NRS and state statute changing. Ordinance 911 is largely a compliance measure that updates the city code to reflect New state requirements for broadband providers that establishes the required agreement framework, preserves the city's ability to manage and protect its rights away, ensures non-discriminatory administration, and aligns local compensation provisions with limitations established by state law. Most of this is probably a benefit to us, and if we would have had some of this in place when our fiber companies were going through town, we could have stopped some of the stuff that was going on, because this requires them to have agreements in place, bonding in place, things like that. One of the things it does is cap the percentage of their franchise agreements down to 2%. Currently, all of our agreements are at 5%. But when we redo our agreements, they will have to drop down, but it keeps them in place until they expire at 5%. Okay.

For those that are paying, at least. All right. Dave, do you have anything to add to that at all?

No, I was just going to point out that it's not retroactive, so existing franchise agreements will continue until they expire.

All right. All right, any concerns from the public on this item? All right, any board discussion or questions? All right, hearing none, I'm ready for a motion.

Mr. Mayor, I'll move to conduct the first reading of ordinance number 911 and direct staff to set the matter for public hearing, second reading, and possible adoption.

All right, is there a second? Second. All right. All in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. And I also vote aye for approval. All right. Reports. All right. For those of us that were able to make it to the Elko National Cemetery dedication, it was a really nice ceremony and well attended. We had our governor here. We had Senator Cortez Masto and Representative Amadei and beautiful facility. If you haven't been up there yet, go up there and check it out. And then keep in mind also the first week in October, is the uh... nevada league of cities conference uh... that's the uh... i think there's a reception on sunday evening the fourth man goes to fifth sixth and seventh really encourage as many of you as possible to attend that event unfortunately i have a conflict And I will not be able to attend that, and I'm really bummed about that, because I always looked forward to the annual meetings. I was on the league board for a while, on the executive committee, rather. I will be there, Mayor. Excellent, excellent. And hopefully you can wrangle a couple of your fellow council members to join you. I'm not a very good salesman. in that respect, and if you're interested in attending, please see Jan, and it's important to plan early to get the good block rate on the rooms. And let's see, I will be out beginning tomorrow, returning on the 25th, and in my absence, Claire, you're the only one that's not running for office on the board, so I expect you to keep the peace while I'm gone.

I kind of thought I'd stirred it up a little bit.

All right. Anyone else? Anything to report?

Just real quick, I'd like to thank the Fair Board for putting on another. Great fair. It was a good success. Good safe races, which I was real happy to see, except for that ninth race. But overall, everything was good between here and Ely.

So I just want to thank them for doing a great job. And the stands were full.

It was good attendance. I got the totals every day for the money bet. And so they had good handles. So it was a very good success for them.

All right. Anyone else? Marissa, do you have anything? Do you have that event coming up that you're hosting?

Yes, we do. We have business after hours coming up on September 17th at the, in our last year parking lot. It's actually my daughter that's going to be hosting it. So she'll have some, some fun cocktails, crude raffles, and it's in conjunction with the chamber. So stop on by at five 30. We'd love to see everyone.

All right.

Just a reminder, as we won't have a meeting until then, turn your eyes to the sky on the 18th and 19th. We'll have a balloon festival going on in town, as well as Sky Fair. Skydiver's going to be jumping out about 10 o'clock to the National Anthem with a giant flag. Skydiver's coming with the flag. It's going to be pretty cool. So between 10, 10, 30, watch the skies. You're going to see some cool stuff.

All right, anyone else?

All right, Jan?

The only thing I have is that and we do have a meeting before this, but September 23rd will be this city of local candidate forum, and so I just wanted to warn or warn. Remind everybody of that. Freudian Freudian slip I think.

No report alright. Candy. Joey.

So I wanted to give everyone a heads up. Next council meeting will be in the middle of audit. Our auditors are Hinton Burdick. So if any of their auditors reach out for questions or interviews, that's what they're doing. Thank you.

Mayor, I forgot one thing. I've had quite a few questions and asks and I know about 60 times a bus driver comes through a certain intersection and there's a lot of proposal, a lot of people have asked about making Jennings and Ruby Vista a four-way stop. It's gotten so busy up there with all the traffic and maybe something you could look into, Paula. It's gotten so busy and I know the buses, Really struggle to get across there sometimes in a safety issues.

I don't think the warrants Yeah, so I think brought this to our attention that as that developed up there as we got to a certain phase that the developer up there was going to be required to turn that into a Four-way stop. I believe we are past that point. So I think we're working on getting that the ball rolling on getting that done. So you should see that happen.

Do you think NDOT would be amenable to that?

NDOT. They don't have anything that's our right of way. Oh, you're talking West Jennings. Yeah, yeah. Down by Arctic Circle. East Jennings. Arctic Circle and all that. Yeah, that's just beyond NDOT right of way. All right.

Thank you, Paul. Appreciate it. All right. Thanks for being here. Do you have anything to report at all as a candidate? Marcella.

I'm coming as an advocate for us.

Please state your name for the record.

I live at 3601 Rolling Hills Drive. I've got to find it. It's either the 18th or the 19th. We're doing a fire awareness for wildland fires for insurance. And so let me.

It's important around here.

Yeah, it's super important. And so as realtors, we are... There it is. Let's see. Sorry, I have 5,000 groups that I'm in charge of. On the 16th. Hey, Marissa, help me out. I don't even know where we're at.

Yes, it's the 16th. It's the 16th. at the County Commission chambers at 530.

Okay, so we just want to invite everyone to come to that help support us with that.

All right, thanks. Thank you. All right, Sarah. Congratulations. That was a nice article in the paper. So really nice. All right, airport. What do you got for us crash?

It's already been said, but Sky Fair, September 19th, come out to the airport.

All right. Thank you. All right. Fire chief. No report. Police chief.

Just a coffee with community leaders. It'll be our first one on Wednesday, September 23rd. So it'll include all the city county leaders, and we'll start that at Mud Hut at 2196 Idaho. So I'll send out a calendar invite from our team, probably on Thursday, and then we'll create an event for it. But it's coffee, the whole event is for discussion, so if people are going to and from work, or just stopping in, they can come in with concerns, ideas, and just more community engagement. So we're trying to push towards a strategic plan that JJ and everybody helped out with.

That's it, thank you.

All right, Kathy.

Thank you again for putting that timeline together on that project for the cemetery. Appreciate that. Jim. Scott. James.

Just wanted to give a couple of brief dates on our pickleball project. I know this one has lingered. little long in the summer we've had some issues in getting some materials here and had to pause the project those materials are associated with the landscaping down there but we have some fencing that showed up and they started digging those holes on Friday so we should see that fence up and then the last step will be putting the decomposed granite in and some landscape boulders it's Just going to be a xeriscape, no irrigation at this point, but it will clean that up. And then I got the cork builder contractor out today. They re-solidified that one net post that was loose and leaning. They had to re-anchor it into the concrete, and it's pretty strong right now. It's holding good. And then also on that 90-degree lip where we had some concrete lack of transition there. I did install a transition strip as a temporary measure. I think it works good for the time being, but I'm gonna be meeting with Dale to see if there's a more permanent solution that we can do there in terms of raising that section of concrete up. So that would be a possibility and would eliminate that. for good. So I know that the pickleball players have been more than patient with this, but we're getting very close to being 100% complete.

Can you hang on for a minute after the meeting? Sure.

James, thank you for taking care of that net. They called me and rounded me down there, and you got right on it. Thank you so much, because they were breathing on my necks. Thank you.

I know that I wore thin with their patients. It just took some time to get around to it so that we could do it right, and it was a warranty issue that needed to be taken care of.

Wonderful. Thanks so much.

All right. Paul, I see that...

project looks like it's starting on construction or um convention convention is underway um it's closed it will be closed till the project's done uh the mill's scheduled to be here on monday so you should see a lot of things happening out there really quick hopefully we can get through it without any issues or unforeseen events that's all i got thank you

Yes, I just like to give an update about the telecommunication franchise fees that are not being paid So I got with Dave and we actually sent out demand letters came out from his office to four entities that had not paid As of today, I received a check from white cloud so they are all caught up and they actually didn't have their business license and they've now sent their application and with that check, so we're getting that processed. Level three communication actually reached out to me today, and they are working on getting their last year's franchise fees together. They guarantee that they're gonna have that paid by September 30th. The other two, Frontier and WANRAC, have not reached out, so I guess we'll need to get with Dave on next steps.

Imagine that. What a shocker that frontier would be deadbeats. Oh, one thing I wanted to mention too, I get the building permit report at the end of each month and so versus 2025 year-to-date January through August we were at 42 single-family residential permits issued we're at 70 for this year through the same period so that's really a nice bump up and I know there's a lot of other ones in the works and hopefully we'll see more permits issued in short order so anything else from that anyone forgot before I call for public comment all right final public comment all right hearing none meeting adjourned 6 l 1 p.m. thank you

This conference is no longer being recorded.